The samples of soil profile at four different times (April 2

May 1

May 30 and August 13) of dwarfed apple orchards under drip fertigation in Weibei dry-land were collected to analyze the characteristics of spatial and temporal distributions of moisture and nutrients in soil profile. The results showed as follows: (1) Soil moisture was concentrated around the drip emitter in the early time. Soil moisture presented an obvious accumulation phenomenon with horizontal movement distance of 20 cm and vertical movement distance of 100 cm. At the later stages

the increased drip irrigation and rainfall resulted in the higher soil moisture in the soil layer of 60-100 cm. A significant difference in the distributions of soil moisture was observed in the horizontal direction. (2) Soil nitrate nitrogen showed an obvious movement with water which distributed concentratedly near the edge of the wetting area and the vertical migration distance was greater than the horizontal migration distance. (3) Surface accumulation of available phosphorus and available potassium were observed on the soil profile. Available phosphorus mainly distributed in 0-20 cm in the horizontal direction and 0-30 cm in the vertical direction. Available potassium distributed mainly in 0-40 cm in the horizontal direction and 0-40 cm in the vertical direction. All the results showed that the contents of available phosphorus and available potassium of near drip emitter were higher than those far away from

which showed an obvious spatial distribution difference. In the horizontal direction of 20-40 cm and the depth of 0-40 cm

the contents of available potassium showed a relatively obvious low-value area where appeared far away in horizontal direction later.(4) Therefore

it is recommended that the amount of irrigation should be reduced to control the depth of water infiltration at 0-40 cm and reduce the loss of nitrogen leaching. The distance between the drip emitter and the plant should be adjusted to ensure that the new root system could absorb sufficient nitrogen

phosphorus and potassium nutrients.